


all's fair in love and video games

by rhenna



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: 707 | Choi Luciel's Real Name, Alternate Universe - College/University, Computer Programming, F/M, Game Development, Games, Graduate School, Slow Burn, Video & Computer Games, but the RFA disbanded following Rika's death, lolol, the agency is still a thing, the game dev AU no one asked for, they all still chill though, yoosung is a puppy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-08-01 04:32:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16277873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhenna/pseuds/rhenna
Summary: "Welcome to IMGD 532, Interactive Design and Production." Saeyoung absently swivels around in his chair while their professor introduces himself to the 16-odd students scattered along the large circular desk that dominates the classroom."I know most of you know who I am, but for those of you I haven’t had the privilege of meeting yet, I’m Dan Loreaux," he continues, looking almost a bit bashful.That’s pretty cute given he was the lead designer on the critically-acclaimed Man Shoot 4 and 5.It was part of the reason Saeyoung had asked for special permission to take this class as an elective -- the other reason being his sullen mirror image sitting directly across from him, pointedly ignoring him and glowering in the vague direction of the whiteboard. Really, what fun would grad school be without the chance to royally embarrass Saeran in front of all of his friends?(The game development AU that no one asked for.)





	all's fair in love and video games

**Author's Note:**

> I'm straight up outing myself irl with this incredibly self-indulgent fic, but whatevs, I'm an adult, I can write a 30 page outline about dumb game developers in love if I want to
> 
> tags will be updated as things progress, there will be some discussion of anxiety and panic attacks later on, but I'll post warnings before the relevant chapters

“Welcome to IMGD 532, Interactive Design and Production.” Saeyoung absently swivels around in his chair while their professor introduces himself to the 16-odd students scattered along the large circular desk that dominates the classroom.

“I know most of you know who I am, but for those of you I haven’t had the privilege of meeting yet, I’m Dan Loreaux,” he continues, looking almost a bit bashful.

That’s pretty cute given he was the lead designer on the critically-acclaimed Man Shoot 4 and 5.

It was part of the reason Saeyoung had asked for special permission to take this class as an elective -- the other reason being his sullen mirror image sitting directly across from him, pointedly ignoring him and glowering in the vague direction of the whiteboard. Really, what fun would grad school be without the chance to royally embarrass Saeran in front of all of his friends?

Loreaux starts to go over the syllabus and Saeyoung tunes him out in favor of subtly checking out his classmates.

The people sitting around the table with him look more “artsy” than his usual classmates; probably par for the course for students in an MFA program. There are only three women, though he’s used to worse ratios in his department. Computer science is somehow even more male-dominated than games, go figure.

He turns his attention back Saeran, who is still avoiding making eye contact with him as though refusing to acknowledge his presence will make it any less obvious that Saeyoung is his brother. He starts pulling faces at him, just to see if he can get a reaction, but the only thing that betrays Saeran’s complete mask of indifference is the slightest twitch of one eyebrow. No fun at all.

Suddenly he realizes a different voice is speaking, so he quickly refocuses. One of his classmates is introducing himself, though of course he’s now missed the poor guy’s name. Apparently his favorite game is Moonrim. Cool.

Saeyoung bites back a pang of guilt. Everyone else in the class is in Saeran’s cohort, so they’re really only doing this for his benefit. He stops swiveling and tangles his fingers together on the desk, the picture of focused attention.

That said, he still doesn’t really take in much as the rest of them go through the same tired song and dance of “name, age, college, favorite game.”

He blames it on his frankly overwhelming senioritis. He already has a job, and it might be the worst job in the world, but it definitely isn’t riding on his grade in this class.

As they keep going around, he notices one girl -- MC? -- who has a fairly heavy duty gaming laptop. That isn’t in and of itself remarkable for someone who wants to make games for a living, but it’s decorated with the most garish, clashing stickers he’s ever seen. Holographic mermaids go elbow to elbow with truly embarrassing fanart, toe to toe with glittery cats in space.

It all overlaps to make a bright, saccharine nightmare. He instantly loves it.

He doesn’t realize he’s been staring until the professor clears his throat and he realizes it’s his turn to introduce himself. He grins broadly, shameless, and leans back in his chair to give an exaggerated, rogueish salute.

“Hey. I’ve never met any of you, but I bet I look familiar. I’m Saeyoung, your friendly neighborhood CS grad student, but feel free to call me by my proper name,” he pauses for effect, “God Seven, Defender of Justice! Just don’t go telling anyone my secret identity.” He winks.

He hears a quiet snicker from his left, and he’s pretty sure it’s that girl, but when he looks over she hurriedly looks away. Well, at least he got a laugh.

“I went to college abroad a while ago,” he continues vaguely, “but I came back to get my Master’s with an emphasis in AI and network security. My favorite game is Doki Doki Literature Club, thanks for listening to my TED talk.” He finishes with a flourish that looks suspiciously like jazz hands. There’s that giggle again, and this time he’s sure it’s her.

* * *

Saeyoung is already smiling by the time the bell over the door rings as he steps into Jaehee’s cafe. Even though they may not share a sense of humor, he hopes she knows that he unironically loves spending roughly a third of his life here.

He steps up to place his order and flirt with the cute college student Jaehee has manning the registers as usual. The guy is almost certainly too young for him, but he blushes so prettily and enjoying the scenery never hurt anyone.

He catches Jaehee coming out of the kitchen with a tray of baked goods for the display case while he’s waiting for his drink. He sends her a jaunty wave, and she nods at him in return.

Saeyoung finds a table for two and throws his bag on one chair, settling gracelessly into the other. Yoosung should be here soon, they should have gotten out of class at the same time today.

The cafe is lively, but not crowded. Close enough to the university that it’s acceptable to study there, but far enough away that it’s not crammed full of undergrads all the time. Really, it strikes the perfect balance.

Sure enough, he sees a blur of blond hair rocket through the door not five minutes later. When he sees Saeyoung, his face splits into such a wide grin that Saeyoung is somehow almost _moved_ by it. Yoosung is too good for this world, too pure. And way too easy to mess with.

Yoosung just about scampers over to the table -- he should probably cool it with the puppy imagery, he thinks to himself -- completely forgetting to order whatever tooth-rotting concoction he usually gets. He gets most of the way there before he remembers, looking comically surprised, before running back to the registers to order. Saeyoung can see him impatiently bouncing on his heels as he waits for his drink. Finally, drink in hand this time, he returns, unceremoniously shoving Saeyoung’s bag off of the chair.

“Sorry I’m late,” he says in a rush, “the first day of class always seems to go over. We’re moving into clinicals this year, though! I’m so excited!” Saeyoung can tell, his friend is almost vibrating.

Saeyoung wonders if he’s ever been that excited about anything. He’s inclined to think not.

“That’s great, Yoosungie, my precious son is all grown up now,” he says, reaching forward to obnoxiously ruffle Yoosung’s bangs. Yoosung pouts up at him adorably, smacking the offending hand away before hurriedly checking to make sure his hair clips are still in place.

“You’re barely older than me, but whatever,” Yoosung shoots back, maturely. He visibly shakes off his annoyance -- Saeyoung is not sure why that gesture reminds him so much of those video compilations of dogs shaking water off in slow motion -- before reverting to his perpetual smile. “How were your classes today?”

“They were fine,” he says blandly. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. He’s already set to graduate, to finally go out and use all of that training he got at the Agency before they sent him back to school so he could be a more useful tool down the line. He supposes he’s just delaying the inevitable shitshow his life will become after he finishes.

But that’s not what Yoosung wants to hear, so he shuts down that line of thinking real quick and instead exuberantly continues, “but being in that game class I told you about will allow me hitherto unthinkable opportunities to troll my little brother! What more could I ask for?”

Yoosung laughs, and the conversation continues smoothly from there. Always friendly. Always, at least on Saeyoung’s end, superficial.

“Oh, I meant to tell you!” Yoosung interjects halfway through his own unfinished sentence, “The other night I raided Heroic Darkfathom Cavern with my guild and my best-in-slot cloak dropped!” He smiles with his eyes closed, chin sticking out proudly.

“Grats, nerd,” Saeyoung says, clapping him on the shoulder and deciding against teasing Yoosung about how his item level was still way higher. He could let him have this. He could be a good friend.

“But seriously, when are you going to get good? I barely raid anymore, and I’ve still got a better gear score than you.” Or maybe he couldn’t. Whoops.

Yoosung scowls at him with mock indignation, but, as always, he’s fairly good natured about Saeyoung’s ribbing. “Yeah, let me know when you finally decide to play a class that takes skill, rogue.”

“Don’t hate just because you can’t top the charts like me~” Saeyoung sing-songs, causing them both crack up at their own nonsense.

“Glad to hear things with your guild are going well, though,” Saeyoung manages once they’ve  calmed down a bit. Intriguingly, Yoosung blushes. Saeyoung latches on to that so fast his head spins.

“What’s all that about, Yoosungie?” He says lowly, teasingly leaning in closer to see Yoosung’s face more clearly. Yoosung get even pinker and avoids his eyes, but Saeyoung knows it’s only a matter of time. He continues to stare, and Yoosung cracks.

“I-it’s, um, our h-healing lead,” he stutters out with his eyes screwed shut, like it physically pains him to do so.

“What about them?” Saeyoung asks with a shark-like smile, knowing this is about to get really good. Yoosung opens one eye a crack to peek at him.

“It’s her v-voice. She’s got a really pretty voice. It sounds like… like singing.” Oh wow, this is even better than Saeyoung had dared to hope. “I guess I maybe, um, maybe have a teeny, tiny, little… crush on her?” He says the last bit all at once, blushing furiously.

Christmas has come early, and Saeyoung must have been a very good little boy this year.

Don’t laugh. Don’t laugh. Just don’t. It’s a losing battle, though, and Saeyoung really didn’t have his heart in it in the first place. He laughs right in Yoosung’s face, like an ass. Yoosung’s expressive face gets stormier and stormier the longer he laughs.

“Do you even know what this girl looks like?” Saeyoung teases, shoving up his glasses to wipe a tear out of the corner of his eye, and he can tell from Yoosung’s furrowed brow and pinched mouth that he doesn’t.

He laughs again, then asks, “What if she’s super ugly?” Okay, that was probably a bit mean, but it does have the intended effect of riling Yoosung up further.

“She’s not!” Yoosung shouts indignantly, earning himself a glare from Jaehee behind the counter. He sinks back into himself with an apologetic look, properly chastened. But he’s still glaring daggers at Saeyoung and gosh, it’s really just too easy.

Saeyoung makes a placating gesture with his hands, still giggling. “Okay, easy, I get it, puppy’s got some teeth,” he says liltingly. “I’m just messing with you. I’m sure she’s great, and isn’t ugly at all.”

“Don’t call me ‘puppy.’” Yoosung still looks annoyed, but there’s no bite to his words -- okay, Saeyoung concedes, maybe that metaphor is getting out of hand now. “You’ll see the next time you actually show up to raid.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Saeyoung says suggestively, and laughs when Yoosung sputters angrily again.

* * *

The weeks pass fairly uneventfully. They complete a few individual projects and present them for feedback to the class. Each time, Saeyoung is impressed by how varied they are -- there’s a huge swing in genre and theme. Still, he finds himself much more interested in watching his classmates while they present than the games themselves.

Some stutter and stumble over their words, some are gregarious and vivacious, and some are so clearly apathetic it’s actually impressive. Saeyoung turns everything into a joke, effortlessly lapsing into his class clown persona. He sees Loreaux sigh and shake his head every time, but how else should he be? This is who is able to be right now.

Saeyoung, against all his better judgement, finds himself looking forward to when the sticker girl -- whose name actually is MC, he confirmed -- steps up to present.

It’s just because she has a pretty voice. That’s all. He just hadn’t noticed it before because she’s fairly shy. It’s soothing, sort of low and melodic even though she speaks quite softly. But that’s the reason he keeps catching himself watching her. The only reason.

It’s definitely not because of the way she plays with her hands during her presentations, or how she always seems a bit hesitant and self-deprecating when discussing her projects, or because she laughs a lot as a nervous habit.

Okay, maybe it is a little bit because of those things, too. It’s awkward, but also somehow endearing. She reminds him of Yoosung a little bit in that way.

Her projects are very touchy-feely, very… sincere. Last time she made a game about struggling to find love through trial and error that was almost profound, despite its simplicity. This week, she’s presenting a little suite of mini-games to help people with anxiety relax.

Despite her nervousness, empathy seems to roll off of her in waves. It’s frankly a bit intimidating. Saeyoung doesn’t really remember what to do with people like that, if he ever knew to begin with.

His brother is altogether a different beast. Saeran is fairly reticent and stone-faced during his presentations, but clearly cares what his classmates think of his work, though Saeyoung is pretty sure he’d rather die than admit that.

His projects have surprised Saeyoung, and not just because Saeran only works on them behind his locked bedroom door, snarling every time Saeyoung begs to see them just a little bit early. He made a prototype for an RPG about demonic possession, which was very on brand for him, but today he followed it up with a beautiful, soft game about flower breeding.

It’s nice watching Saeran interact with his classmates -- it’s a side to his brother he never really gets to see anymore. And that’s fair, that makes sense, because Saeyoung left first. Even if he came back, he doesn’t expect it to be the same. Saeran should be able to have that kind of relationship with other people, even if he never wants to be that close to Saeyoung again.

It breaks his heart a little bit, but it’s almost a good ache. Things are so much better now, and even if he spends the rest of his miserable life paying for it, it’ll be worth it.

God knows Saeran can be rough around the edges, standoffish, but his classmates clearly like him anyway. They gently tease him, they include him in conversation. Saeran looks relaxed in a way Saeyoung didn’t expect, and he’s so grateful for it. Saeran deserves all that and more.

He can tell he’s going down a sentimental path and this really isn’t the time. It’s probably never really the time, but now is particularly bad. Today is presentation day and it’s his turn to shine. Shake it off. Now is the time for winning.

Saeyoung has this in the bag. Not to toot his own horn, but this is definitely his best project yet. His magnum opus. He really took his time on this one, since it’s his last solo project before they start on their main pair project for the rest of the class. He wants to make a good impression.

He approaches the front of the class and loads up the game on the projector. The title screen shows briefly, black bordered white font captioning a drawing of a man lifting his hand toward a butterfly: “Is this Loss?”

It zooms in on the butterfly, which becomes the main menu of the game. At least two of his classmates have gotten the joke so far, he’s heard some laughter poorly disguised by coughs, but it’s hard to tell with the projector in his eyes who it came from.

“For this project, I decided to focus on image processing and recognition. I really wanted to make something more interactive this time,” He begins, smiling widely. “If you put in a keyword here,” he indicates a text box on the screen, “the program will search for images related to that theme and create a four panel spread reminiscent of a certain Ctrl-Alt-Del comic.”

He waggles his eyebrows comically and hears groans from the audience. And then, wonderfully, one clear, bell-like peal of laughter.


End file.
